Thailand travel guide

Travel to Thailand between Nov – Mar. Those are the months the weather, the crowds and the airfare line up — outside them you trade one of the three.

Currency

Thai Baht (THB)

Language

Thai; workable English in Bangkok, Phuket and Pattaya, very little elsewhere.

Time zone

ICT (UTC+7) — 1½ hours ahead of India

Plug type

Type A / B / C, 220V — Indian round pins usually fit

Flight time from India

4.5 hrs

Flying from

Ahmedabad · Mumbai · Delhi · Bengaluru

• 

  The Grand Palace and Wat Pho, before nine

  The palace opens at 8.30 and by eleven it is unbearable in both heat and crowd. Do the Emerald Buddha first, then walk ten minutes to Wat Pho for the 46-metre reclining Buddha and the oldest massage school in Thailand, where an hour of traditional Thai massage costs less than a coffee at your hotel.

• 

  Phi Phi and Maya Bay by speedboat from Krabi

  Maya Bay reopened with hard limits — no boats in the bay itself, a fixed daily cap and no swimming at the beach. Go early, take the Krabi departure rather than the Phuket one, and pay the extra for a smaller boat; the large joiner boats spend more time queueing than snorkelling.

• 

  Chiang Mai — an ethical elephant sanctuary, no riding

  Riding, painting and circus tricks all rest on the same training method, and the good camps have stopped. Elephant Nature Park and a handful of others let you feed, walk beside and bathe rescued elephants instead. Book direct, weeks ahead; the tout stalls on Nimman Road sell riding camps under sanctuary names.

• Chatuchak, Saturday morning

  Fifteen thousand stalls across twenty-seven sections, open weekends only. Go at nine when it is still bearable, start from the clock tower, and keep the section number of anything you liked — you will not find it again by memory. Prices drop sharply after four in the afternoon.

• Ayutthaya by bicycle

  The ruined capital is a ninety-minute train ride from Hua Lamphong and costs almost nothing. Hire a bicycle at the station, ride between Wat Mahathat, Wat Chaiwatthanaram and the Buddha head held in the roots of a banyan, and be back in Bangkok for dinner.

• A cooking class, and the floating market it starts at

  The good classes begin with the teacher walking you through a local market — galangal against ginger, three kinds of basil, why palm sugar behaves differently. Ask for the vegetarian track when you book: they will build the curry paste without shrimp paste rather than lifting it out afterwards.

• Pad ThaiJain friendly

  The default recipe carries fish sauce, dried shrimp and egg. Say "jay" (เจ) and the cook switches to soy — that word means strictly vegan in Thailand, no fish sauce, no egg, no onion or garlic, which is why it happens to suit a Jain traveller better than the English word vegetarian does.

• Som tam and the yellow-red เจ flagVegetarian

  Green papaya salad is pounded with dried shrimp and fish sauce as standard, so it is not vegetarian unless you ask. Across Thailand a yellow flag with red Thai script marks a jay kitchen — those stalls are wholly plant-based, and during the nine-day Vegetarian Festival in Bangkok Chinatown, whole streets become one.

• Tom yum and tom kha

  Lemongrass, galangal, kaffir lime and chilli — a broth that tastes like nothing in Indian cooking. The clear tom yum is usually prawn-based; the coconut tom kha is easily made with mushroom and tofu, and most kitchens will do it if asked at the point of ordering.

• Mango sticky riceVegetarian

  Glutinous rice, thick coconut cream, a whole ripe nam dok mai mango. Entirely vegetarian, entirely eggless, and best from a street cart in April when the mangoes are at their peak rather than from a hotel dessert trolley in December.

• Indian and Jain food, where it actually existsJain friendly

  Bangkok has real Gujarati and Jain kitchens around Pahurat and Sukhumvit Soi 11, and Pattaya has a cluster on Soi Buakhao. Outside those pockets, assume nothing — Krabi, Chiang Mai and the islands run on fish sauce. We brief hotels in advance and, for Jain groups, carry the requirement to the resort kitchen at contracting.

Set a meal preference — vegetarian, Jain or halal — when you book and we brief every hotel and restaurant on your itinerary.

• Chatuchak Weekend Market — 27 sections, everything from ceramics to indigo cotton
• MBK Center and Platinum Fashion Mall for wholesale-price clothing; buy three of anything for the tier-two rate
• Thai silk from Jim Thompson, or the far cheaper handloom at Chiang Mai Sunday Walking Street
• Celadon and blue-and-white ceramics, packed properly for the flight
• Coconut oil, tiger balm, herbal compress balls and spa products at any Boots or Watsons
• Dried mango, durian chips and Thai instant curry pastes as the practical suitcase filler

In Bangkok the BTS Skytrain and MRT bypass the traffic completely and a Rabbit card covers both; Grab is metered and honest where tuk-tuks are not. Between cities, budget airlines are cheaper than the train and the overnight sleeper to Chiang Mai is a genuine experience rather than a saving. On the islands, the ferry timetable collapses in monsoon swell — never plan an island hop on the day of an international flight.

• The jet-ski and rented-scooter damage scam is real and organised, mostly in Pattaya and Patong. Photograph and video every scratch before you take the machine, and never leave your passport as a deposit — cash or a photocopy only.
• A tuk-tuk driver who offers a cheap city tour will take you to a gem shop and a tailor he is paid to fill. There is no government gem sale, ever. Walk away at the first detour.
• Never disrespect a Buddha image or the monarchy. Feet must not point at an image, tattoos of the Buddha cause real offence, and lese-majeste is prosecuted — including for things posted online from abroad.
• On the Andaman coast from May to October the rip currents kill several tourists a year. A red flag on the beach means do not enter the water, regardless of how calm it looks from the sand.
• Agree the price in writing before entering any show bar or hostess bar. The inflated-bill routine, backed by a doorman, is the single most common way tourists lose serious money here.
• Buy travel insurance that explicitly covers scooter riding — most policies exclude it unless you hold a motorcycle licence and an International Driving Permit, which is also what the Thai police check.

Per person, per day, on the ground — meals, local transport and entry tickets. Flights and hotels sit in the package price, not here.